Winning and Losing
by Ellie603
Summary: Chandler proposes to Monica at her favorite restaurant, just like he planned, and she immediately accepts. When Richard happens to walk in a few minutes later, Chandler begins to freak out until he realizes that having Richard find out about their engagement could be the best part of the night.


_A/N: I had this idea back when I started writing stuff about the proposal a couple weeks ago, but I didn't want to do like a billion proposal fics in succession, so I decided to save it for a bit. I did this one partly to see what would have happened if Chandler had actually gotten to propose to Monica like he had originally planned and partly to express how much I really don't like Richard. So this was fun._

_As always, thanks for the wonderful reviews on my other stuff. You all are amazing. Also - if any of you have any good "missing moment" or "what if" type one-shots you'd like to see, please let me know. My previously long list of fic ideas is very short at the moment, so if you can think of any cute Mondler stuff, I'd love to have some more to write!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own _Friends_, but some dialogue is taken from "TOW the Proposal."_

* * *

As Chandler and Monica left the apartment to go to Monica's favorite restaurant, Chandler was nervous. Insanely, ridiculously nervous. This was going to be the most important moment of his life so far: he was going to ask Monica to marry him.

He was excited in addition to the nervousness, but he still could hear the voices of his friends ringing in his head: Joey saying he was going to mess it up, Phoebe asking to have the ring if Monica said no. Chandler knew that he could do this, and he knew that Monica was going to say yes, but there were still scenarios floating around in his mind where things didn't go as planned.

They made it to the restaurant without Monica suspecting anything, despite the odd behavior of their friends in the apartment before they left. Chandler was happy to have Ross, Joey, Rachel, and Phoebe know about his plans so he could share his excitement with them, but he had not appreciated their staring and tearing up at the sight of Monica before they left.

When they got to their table, Monica pulled out her mirror to fix her makeup, as Chandler checked for the ring in his pocket for at least the fifth time since they had left.

It wasn't there. Chandler patted his right inside pocket again. Nothing. He moved to both his pants pockets – still no ring. His left inside pocket. Chandler breathed a deep sigh of relief as he felt the now familiar shape of the ring box under his hand.

"What are you doing?" Monica asked, looking at the odd position of his hand on his chest.

Chandler thought quickly. "One nation," he began, adjusting his hand to the proper position for the Pledge of Allegiance, "under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Chandler laughed forcedly. "I remembered it! Oh look, the champagne is here!"

As the waiter poured their champagne, Chandler began to rub his hands together, preparing himself for what he was going do next. As he had told his friends earlier, after he and Monica got their champagne, instead of proposing a toast, he was just going to propose.

"Are you okay?" Monica asked, putting a hand on his arm.

"Yes, yes," Chandler replied, attempting to act as normal as possible. "I'm good. Are you good? Are you good? Is everything-? Are you per- are you per- per- perfect?" Chandler stumbled out, knowing that he was very obviously not acting normal.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Monica replied, either not noticing Chandler's weirdness or else ignoring it, for which Chandler was very grateful. "I'm actually, I'm a little cold though. Could I have your jacket?"

"Oh, yeah," said Chandler, beginning to remove his jacket until he saw the lump in the left inside pocket. The ring. That was _not_ something Monica could have yet. "Oh, no, you can't have my jacket!" he tried to cover for himself, "because then I would be cold. If you thought that you were gonna be cold, you should have brought your own jacket!" Chandler knew he was just rambling at this point, but he still tried to recover. "But, other than that, are you okay? Are you okay?" He stroked Monica's arm.

She started laughing, staring at him. "Are you_ sure_ you're okay?" she asked, clearly sensing that something was going on with him.

Chandler decided that the time had come. This was the perfect moment.

"Yes, I'm fine," he said decisively. "In fact, I've been fine for a long time now, and I think the reason is you."

"Aww," Monica smiled at him. "That's sweet."

Chandler took a deep breath. "Okay. Um." Chandler cleared his throat. "Before I met you, I had really little life, and I couldn't imagine growing old with anyone, until I found you. I mean, you've always been one of my closest friends and one of my favorite people in the entire world, but these past two years with you have just been… they've been amazing. The best years of my life, no contest." He held up his hands with his palms open to illustrate his point. "I've known for a while now that, for me, there really isn't a life without you. I had so many years of that before, and I can't even tell you how much I _don't_ want that again. I always thought that I was going to end up alone, or that if I did find someone, I was going to mess it up like I always did, but here you are, and I love you so much more than I ever thought I could love anyone. Sometimes I wish we hadn't had to wait until London to figure this out so we could have had even more time together, but at the same time, I love how everything worked out for us in the end. Either way, we can't change the past, but I do know what I want for the future."

Chandler paused, his eyes staring to tear up slightly as he stared at the most important person in his life. "Monica, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to have kids with you and grow old with you, and just be with you, forever, if you'll have me." Chandler moved out of his chair and knelt down on one knee in front of Monica as he pulled the blue-gray velvet covered box from the inside pocket of his jacket and opened it. He saw excitement in her eyes, as a smile began to grow on her face.

"Monica Geller," Chandler said, looking up at her, nervously, "will you marry me?"

The words were barely out of his mouth before Monica answered. "YES!"

Chandler inhaled quickly before moving back into his chair so he could properly kiss his new fiancée.

The pair separated for a moment so Chandler could remove the ring from the box and place it on her fourth finger. There was a smattering of applause from the restaurant patrons around them, which Chandler and Monica acknowledged with smiles, glancing around them, before meeting in a hug.

As Chandler's arms moved from around Monica down to her hands as they pulled apart from each other, he noticed that she had started crying. He wiped at her cheeks lightly with his thumb, making her smile.

"I love you so much, Chandler," she said quietly.

Chandler grinned back at her. "I love you, too."

She started laughing as though remembering something funny. "So this is why you've been so weird all night, and why you wouldn't let me have your jacket." She paused for a moment, seeming to be thinking. "And is that why everyone was being weird and staring at me at the apartment before we left?"

Chandler began laughing as well. "Yeah, that'd be it. Our friends aren't the best at keeping secrets. I'm just glad none of them told you. Phoebe's known I was going to do this for weeks now."

Monica smiled at him again, shaking her head slightly. "You're so great, you know that?"

Chandler raised his eyebrows in a typical Chandler joking fashion. "I have been told."

Monica began to laugh again in reply, but he saw her expression freeze and her eyes widen, staring at something past him.

"What is it, Mon?" he asked, confused, turning around following her line of sight. And then his eyes fell on the reason for Monica's sudden silence. Richard.

Chandler threw his head back, sighing exasperatedly. _Of course_ Richard had to be here, tonight of all nights! Right after he had gotten engaged to Monica! Chandler stopped at that thought. He was _engaged_ to _Monica_. And _Richard_ was here. A grin that was slightly malicious in nature appeared on Chandler's face. He had always felt inferior to Monica's ex-boyfriend, but that ring on Monica's left hand told the entire world that he, Chandler, had beaten the giant. Richard – stupid, tall, mustachioed Richard – had lost, and awkward, makes-jokes-when-he's-uncomfortable Chandler had won, and the best part was that his prize was the hand of the greatest woman in the world. Chandler retracted his original thought. This was the _perfect_ night for Richard to be here.

Chandler turned to Monica, who looked very distressed by her ex-boyfriend's presence.

"This is _not _who I wanted us to see tonight," Monica said, glancing at Chandler, upset and clearly worried about how her new fiancé was going to react to her ex-boyfriend.

Chandler, in response, was uncharacteristically calm. "It's okay, Monica. It'll be fine."

He looked back over to Richard, who suddenly seemed to notice them, putting up his hand in greeting.

"Monica, Chandler, hey!" he said walking over to them, a woman following behind him.

Chandler and Monica both stood, Monica saying nothing, as Chandler extended his hand.

"Nice to see you, Richard," he said calmly, waiting patiently for the perfect moment to tell him that he and Monica were engaged, just so he could see that smug look fall off that stupid mustached face.

Richard shook his hand, and then turned to Monica, clearly caring about her more than Chandler. "Long time, no see, huh, Monica?" he said cheerfully, a smile that Chandler really didn't like appearing on his face.

Monica nodded, and Chandler could see the mix of emotions in her eyes. There was worry about Richard being there, excitement about being engaged, and a small hint of confusion about how well Chandler was handling the reappearance of her ex-boyfriend.

"What have you been up to?" Richard asked Monica, clearly very interested in catching up with her.

Chandler saw Monica take the subtlest of deep breaths before answering.

"Actually." A smile appeared on her face and Chandler prepared himself to watch the downfall of Richard at his fiancée's next words. "Chandler and I just got engaged a couple minutes ago." Monica held up her left hand so Richard could see the ring glittering on her fourth finger. Her smile grew bigger on her face as she moved beside Chandler, who put his arm around her.

Chandler turned to Richard.

Richard's smile fell and his mouth opened slightly in apparent surprise. Sadness seemed to creep into his face, as he looked down at his feet, crestfallen.

Chandler had to work very hard not to smile more than was appropriate for a newly engaged man. Grinning at his new fiancée: okay. Jumping up and down gleefully: not so much. Chandler did allow himself to bounce ever so slightly on the balls of his feet in excitement for a moment before Monica poked him in the side to make him stop.

Eventually Richard looked up, a fake looking smile plastered on his face. His eyes weren't happy, as they had been moments before; instead, they looked as though some sort of light had left them. "Oh, wow. Congratulations!" he said in a hollow, dead sort of voice.

Chandler didn't trust himself to open his mouth without saying something mean to Richard, so he just nodded as Monica thanked him. Chandler was thrilled with the turn of events, but at the same time, he had to feel bad for the hollow voiced man in front of him. If their situations had been reversed, with Chandler losing Monica to Richard, he knew that he would be handling it worse than Richard was now. Richard would have received no fake smiles or would-be-genuine congratulations from him.

"You're table's ready, sir," a waiter said, coming up to Richard.

"Oh," Richard said, looking relieved. "Good to see you guys," he said, though clearly not believing that it had been good to see them.

"Or if you prefer, this table's available,' the waiter added, gesturing to the table for two next to Monica and Chandler's.

"No, that's okay," Richard replied, as Chandler mentally thanked him. "Congrats again, guys." He held up his hand again in some semblance of a wave, and then allowed he and his date to be lead away to another table in the restaurant.

Chandler watched them walk away, and, as soon as they were out of sight, he turned to Monica, grinning from ear to ear.

Monica gave him a strange look. "What is _up_ with you?"

"Did you _see_ Richard?" Chandler asked excitedly. "When you said we were engaged, he acted like someone died! _I_ made Richard look all sad like that! _Me_! Chandler!"

Monica stared at him blankly. "Really Chandler? That's not nice."

Chandler put his hand on her arm. "Okay, I guess I pity the guy a bit. I mean, he lost the greatest woman in the world, but _I'm _engaged to her now, so I get to be at least a_ little_ excited about this! And it's not like I gloated to his face or anything," he added defensively.

Monica's blank expression slowly turned into a smile as she began to laugh. "I guess I'll let you have that, if I'm the greatest woman in the world or whatever."

Chandler lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. "You are the greatest, most beautiful, most _perfect_ woman I have ever known."

Monica moved her hand to his cheek. "I love you, Chandler."

A small smile appeared on Chandler's face. "I love you too, Monica."

Chandler and Monica ate relatively quickly, wanting to get back to the apartment and celebrate with everyone. Chandler saw that Monica spent the meal alternating between watching how her ring reflected in the light of the restaurant, asking Chandler questions about how he picked out the ring and other proposal related details, and actually eating. Chandler responded with stories of his visit to the Morgan Chase Museum, Phoebe walking in on him looking at ring brochures in the bathroom, their later trips to various jewelry stores, and him getting the ring back from another man right before the other guy proposed by pretending Phoebe was his dying wife.

When he wasn't talking or eating though, Chandler just stared at Monica, who was invariably staring at her ring with what Chandler thought was the most adorable smile on her face. She was so happy, and it was something he had done that had made that happen. They were engaged! They were going to get married and spend their lives together! Chandler knew at some point there would probably be some commitment related freak out from him, but he knew he could handle it, because this was Monica, and he loved her more than anything.

The pair finally finished and made their way back to the apartment. They opened the door and found Ross sitting at their kitchen table.

"Oh my God, you guys!" he said excitedly, standing up.

Chandler beamed at his friend as gestured to Monica to let her do the honors.

"We're engaged!" Monica announced racing to hug her older brother.

Chandler followed her and joined their hug.

"I'm so happy for you guys!" Ross said as they separated.

"Look, look!" Monica flashed her ring in Ross's face. "I'm getting married! I'm gonna be a bride!"

Ross started laughing as he turned to Chandler. "My future brother-in-law!" he said, clapping Chandler on the back exuberantly.

Chandler understood the sentiment, but he was pretty sure that Ross's excitement was going to leave him with a bruised back. He shrugged it off as he began to tell Ross about the rest of their adventures at dinner. "So guess who we ran into at the restaurant?"

"Who?" Ross asked curiously.

"Richard," Chandler answered, smirking.

Ross's eyes grew wide. "Oh… that's not good."

Monica smiled, laughing slightly. "Actually, it was okay. It was a couple minutes after Chandler proposed, and he didn't freak out or anything."

"Oh, okay," Ross said, nodding. "Great."

Chandler's smirk grew bigger. "You should have seen the look on Richard's face when Monica told him that we were engaged. He looked so sad! It was the best thing ever."

Ross laughed softly and shook his head. "Whatever you say, man."

After several minutes spent discussing Ross's problems with his current girlfriend Elizabeth, Ross left Monica and Chandler alone in their apartment.

"I have to call everyone we know!" she said excitedly. "I mean, I'm engaged, Chandler! I'm gonna get married!"

Chandler nodded to her, entertained by his new fiancée's excitement. "Well I was there, honey. I think you being engaged was kind of a direct result of me proposing." He offered her a small smile, which she returned.

She walked to pick up the phone, but then stopped with the receiver in her hand. "You know, if I tell my mom she's just going to say something critical. I think I can live without that for a day." She replaced the phone on the table. "Besides, we should really tell Phoebe, Joey, and Rachel first, right?"

Chandler came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Yeah, we should," he said leaning over her shoulder, pressing a kiss to her hair.

Instead of calling everyone they knew, Monica and Chandler sat together on the balcony, Chandler, content, and Monica fidgeting excitedly, moving her ring around to see it from different angles even in the dark.

After a while, they returned inside, and Monica decided she had to do something, so she grabbed a full trash bag and went to empty it down the trash chute. Before she even reached the door of the apartment, however, it opened.

Phoebe gasped when she saw her.

"Oh my God, you're back!" Joey said next to Phoebe, his face bursting into a huge smile.

"Oh, let me see! Let me see your hand!" said Phoebe excitedly, her voice a much higher pitch than usual.

Monica immediately dropped the trash bag and held out her hand to her friends. "We're engaged!" she almost yelled.

Chandler stood and joined his fiancée and their friends.

Joey immediately pulled he and Monica both into a hug, which Phoebe joined a second later.

"I'm so happy for you guys!" Joey exclaimed.

"Don't you like the ring, Monica?" Phoebe said as their group split apart. "I helped pick it out, though I do think he should have gone with a musket."

Monica gave her friend and odd look before laughing slightly. "Yeah, Chandler told me the story. I love it. It's perfect." She smiled up and Chandler, who hugged her to his side with the arm closest to her.

A second later Rachel rushed in and gasped as soon as she saw Monica. "Oh my God, you're here! Let me see you hand!"

Again there was excitement over the ring and another group hug. Monica was so happy, and Chandler was just glad that there had been nothing that night to take away from that.

* * *

A couple days later, Monica was cooking in the kitchen of Alessandro's, smiling down at her ring every time she caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of her eye. She was so happy to be engaged. Finally, _finally_ engaged!

One of her servers came in. "Hey Monica," she said. "There's a customer who wants to compliment the chef. Shall I let him in?"

"Sure!" Monica said, excitedly. "I love this part!" Monica moved to the stove to stir soup simmering in a pot, trying to look especially busy.

"Come on in," the server called into the hallway behind her as she left.

And in walked Richard. "Hi."

Monica stared. This probably wasn't going to be the most comfortable of conversations. "Richard!"

"Actually, I'm not here to compliment the chef," he said, shrugging.

"Oh," Monica said, diminishing slightly_. If that's not the reason he's here, then what is?_ she thought to herself quickly. "I hate when people come back to compliment the chef." She tried to act casual. "Like I have nothing better to do! So, what's up?" She crossed her arms, looking at him slightly nervously.

"Well," he shrugged again, "it was great seeing you the other night…"

Monica narrowed her eyes. As she recalled, it had _not_ been so great for Richard seeing her the other night. "Um, did you come down here to tell me that?" she asked, confused, but hopeful that this was all he was going to say.

"No!" he said, almost smirking, "I came here to tell you something else. I came here to tell you I still love you."

"What? Um, what did you-? WHAT?" Monica said staring at Richard incredulously. How did he think that this was an okay thing to tell her?

"I still love you," he repeated. "And, I know, I probably shouldn't even be here telling you this. I mean, you're engaged to Chandler, a guy I really like. And if you say he's straight, I'll believe you! After seeing you the other night, I knew if I didn't tell you, I'd regret it for the rest of my life. Letting you go was the stupidest thing I ever did."

Monica looked at him shaking her head. "You're really not supposed to be back here," she said decisively.

"Ah, well, I'm sorry," he replied. "I know this is the wrong time, and the wrong place, but I had to tell you! I want to spend my life with you. I want to marry you. I want to have kids with you."

As Richard spoke, Monica could hear Chandler's voice in her mind saying the same things, asking her to marry him, saying he wanted to have kids with her, saying he wanted to be with her forever. Monica glanced down at the glittering engagement ring on her finger. "I'm sorry, Richard, but Chandler already kind of said all that. When he proposed. Because he's my fiancé. And he's _allowed_ to do that."

Richard looked at her, his eyebrows raised. "Isn't Chandler supposed to be afraid of kids and commitment and all that? Has so much really changed in the past four years?"

Monica's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, it has," she said growing angry. "Chandler and I are perfect for each other, and I'm going to marry him. And now you need to get _out_ of my kitchen."

Richard held his hands up in surrender. "Fine. Okay." He turned and walked out the door.

Monica took a deep breath. She really wanted to see Chandler right now. She glanced at the clock. They were meeting for lunch in half an hour; she could hold it together until then.

Chandler met Monica outside her restaurant so they could walk a block together to a small pizzeria. As soon as she saw him, she threw her arms around his neck.

"Hey, hey, Mon? What happened?" he said, wrapping his arms around her waist instantly.

"Richard," she said, upset, into Chandler's shirt.

Chandler pulled back. "What about Richard?"

Monica shook her head, biting her lip to keep from crying as she tried to calm herself down. "He came in and told me that he loved me and that he wanted to spend his life with me and marry me and have kids with me."

Chandler's mouth fell open, clearly shocked. "He said WHAT?"

Monica sniffed. "I know! And then he was making comments about how you're supposed to scared of commitment to get me to leave you for him or something, but Chandler it was terrible. He _knew _I was engaged! Why would he do something like that?"

Chandler shook his head, his eyes flashing angrily. "He just can't believe he lost you to someone like me. He's angry that I beat him."

Monica placed her hands on Chandler's arms as she gradually calmed down. "Well _I'm _glad you beat him."

The anger lessened on Chandler's face, as a small smile appeared on his lips. "Really?"

Monica laughed softly at her fiancé. "Of course, Chandler!" she said, kissing him quickly. "I love you."

Chandler looked at her sideways. "So, you mean, even if Richard had said he wanted to get married to you four years ago or whatever, you would still rather be with me now?"

Monica nodded her head, laughing harder. "Yes, Chandler. I would _always _rather be with you than him. _Always._ Especially now that he did something like that. You don't tell an engaged woman you haven't dated for years that you're still in love with her!" Monica shook her head, but Chandler was grinning at her.

"What is it?" she asked, confused.

Chandler's smile just grew bigger. "I won," he said simply.

"You won," Monica affirmed, leaning in to kiss her fiancé once again.

* * *

_A/N: Thanks for reading, please review, and let me know if you have any ideas about any one-shots you'd like to see me write!_


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